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New Year’s Food 101: Morimono

I’m not sure what the symbolism of this arrangement of items are or even if it’s from Japan. I know that this is a local Hawaii custom from plantation days so we do it too. The items, from left to right are yoken (sweet bean paste), kamaboko (it should be green, but this pink one had a matsu in it which was cool), and I have gobo (long llife) tempura. I’m also supposed to have tangerine slices (but people wanted to take the tangerines home) and kanten (red and green agar). KTA had the kanten, but I think it’s kind of gross, and after paying $10 for one block of yokan (!), I was not about to pay for the two blocks of kanten, especially since I’m not sure what this is for besides to make pretty. If somebody knows, please inform me.